


Base!

by PaintedYertle



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Kevin and Nicky and Aaron and Robin make cameos, Lazy Mornings, M/M, Neil and Andrew connect with their inner child, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-14 00:59:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16029716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintedYertle/pseuds/PaintedYertle
Summary: Neil and Andrew are left alone in the dorm for a few hours. One thing leads to another, and long story short Andrew gets hyped up on sugar and ropes Neil into a Nerf gun fight.Neil engaged him in a staring contest. He put one foot on the ground to get up.“Floor is lava.” Andrew said flatly. The bastard.





	Base!

         It was quarter-before nine on a Sunday morning when Neil walked out of his room to see he and Andrew were the only ones in the dorm. He didn’t hear any of the other Foxes around and Neil noticed on his way here they weren’t in their rooms. Andrew was lying stomach-down on one of the beanbags flipping through TV channels

         “Where is everybody?” Neil asked.

         “Out,” said Andrew.

         “On a non-practice weekend morning?” Neil could imagine Kevin pushing himself extra, but he doubted Nicky ever willingly witnessed sunlight through their windows.

         “They signed up for a hiking thing,”

         “ _Why_?” Neil raised an eyebrow and roamed into the kitchen. His muscles were sore and he had a weird pain in his thigh from talking himself into lifting too many weights. Neil couldn’t consider putting one’s body through non-sports related strain without reason.

         “I dunno. Sadomasochism runs in the blood I guess? Get me my gummy worms.”

         Neil looked at Andrew’s beanbag and scanned the short distance from it to the counter where the ripped-open bag of candy was. While Neil was the closest at the fridge to grab a Gatorade, there was nothing standing between Andrew and his goal but a couch. The only thing occupying Andrew was continually hitting the channel button in search of content they both knew he was not interested in.

         “Seriously?” Neil asked, yet inspected the candy anyway. They were sour gummy worms and the bag appeared to have been attacked by Andrew’s teeth. Neil pulled out a worm, noticing what they lacked in the size some other brands of worms had (why was there more than one?!) was compensated by them being absolutely coated in sugar. “This isn’t what I’d call a breakfast of champions, Andrew.”

         “That isn’t what I’d call ‘asking for your opinion’, Neil. If you’re so opposed to early mornings why bother being conscious right now?”

         Neil tossed the sour gummy worms to Andrew, which he caught with his free hand. Neil plopped down on the other beanbag carrying his own Gatorade.

         “I ran out of water in the room. What’s your excuse?” said Neil.

         Andrew stopped changing the channels to chomp on the head of a worm. The TV landed on a _Back to the Future_ re-run. He stretched the gummy out until it snapped in half.

         “Nunya.” said Andrew.

         Neil tilted his head to the side. For a moment he wondered if that was a non-English word he misheard.

         “Nun…?”

         “None of your beeswax.” said Andrew.

         Neil considered Andrew’s appearance right now, his legs bent up and kicking slightly in blue-checkered pajama pants and a gray long-sleeved cotton sweater.

         “I’m sorry, how old are you supposed to be?” Neil asked.

         Andrew’s legs froze, then plopped down on the beanbag. He glared at Neil and cocked his head to the side, as if to criticize Neil’s own outfit without words. Neil had on sweatpants and if his t-shirt weren’t inside out from not being washed it would display a cartoon character Nicky was shocked Neil didn’t recognize when he bought it for him. Andrew popped in one of the worms in his mouth _whole_ , causing Neil to almost feel the sugar no doubt coating his teeth.

         “Older than you.” Andrew said.

         “Not by much,” Neil reached out for the bag to try one, but Andrew’s hand snatched it back, “Oh c’mon, _share_.”

         “ _No._ ”

         “Wow Andrew, you’re _mean_.” Neil took his hand back to instead try to open his Gatorade.

         Andrew gave Neil the least nonplussed look he could muster, if possible. Neil did his best not to be distracted by it.

         “Really Neil? You’ve lived here for how long and you’re just now realizing I’m a bit mean?” After Neil’s third failed attempt at twisting the cap open Andrew snatched it out of his hands and snapped it open like he was trying to kill a woodland creature. He returned it to Neil by slamming it on the floor in front of him.

         “Yeah, just a _big_ meanie.” A laugh bubbled in Neil’s throat, so he tried to cover it up by drinking the Gatorade. It resulted in some of it dribbling down his chin.

         A moment passed and Andrew looked away before saying “Meanie-head.”

         Neil grinned, wiping the red off of the corner of his mouth. “Freakazoid.”

         “Dweeb.”

         “Loser.”

         “Liar-liar-pants-on-fire.”

         “Peter-Peter-pumpkin eater.”

         “What?” Andrew narrowed his eyes, “It’s _cheater-cheater_ , dingus.”

         “Huh? No, that’s the whole rhyme, stupidhead? Had-a-wife-but-couldn’t-keep-her? I mean, I guess it technically could fit more-”

         “You can’t just add ‘head’ to everything and expect it to be an insult, idiot.”

         “You started it first, dummy.” Neil accentuated his comment by flicking Andrew’s forehead. It took a moment to process what he had done without thinking. Neil didn’t even realize he was grinning up til now until his face fell when Andrew glared at him.

         The moment Andrew reached for Neil, Neil shot up off the beanbag and hopped on the arm of the couch. He rolled over and landed onto the cushion.

         “Base!” he cried a bit too loudly, “Base, I’m on base you can’t touch me while I’m on base.”

         Andrew, who hadn’t even moved, stared back at him. It took a moment for Neil to realize Andrew was most likely reaching out to Neil just to touch him or perhaps kiss him. Neil wondered if it was his lingering trauma or his old misconceptions of Andrew that incited his reaction, and the more he considered it the more his face heated up in embarrassment. Andrew sat cross-legged on the beanbag without saying a word. Neil engaged him in a staring contest. It became an awkward silence. He put one foot on the ground to get up.

         “Floor is lava.” Andrew said flatly. The bastard.

         Neil crawled to the edge of the couch, mentally measuring the distance between the couch and his abandoned beanbag next to Andrew. He leaned his torso off the edge and reached out with pitiful groans.

         “Watch out for the sharks,” said Andrew, who was now eating more worms out of the bag.

         Neil pulled back a moment to meet eyes with him. At the very least his stomach muscles were being used today. “Sharks in lava?”

         “Yes,” said Andrew, “Didn’t you know? They’ve got molten armor,” He made circular hand motions, as if that explained it better.

         “This is starting to get silly.”

         Neil persisted in stretching out his arms until he pinched onto the plastic and pulled it towards himself. Once it was close enough he rolled off the arm of the couch and plopped onto the bag. He felt triumphant.

         “Na-na-na-na-na,” Neil pressed his thumb to his nose and wiggled his fingers.

         “Who’s the child now?”

         “Fuck off.”

         Andrew brought his hand to his chest with a look of dull surprise, “Why, Neil A. Josten, did you just do a swear?”

         Neil grinned. The morning sunlight was casting through the windows behind Andrew’s head. Most of the shades at the windows were drawn up accept for the one at Andrew’s desk where he usually smokes, so it had the strongest blast of light. The sight of it made Neil feel giddy in the exact way he knows Andrew hates. He knew he looked that way too by the how Andrew looked away in irritation.

         “Can I kiss you?” Neil asked

         “No. Cooties. Ew.”

         Neil scratched his head, noticing that for all the stories he’s made up in the past Andrew might have the better imagination out of them. As Andrew started sucking sugar off his fingertips on one hand and used he other to shut off the TV, Neil spotted the gummy worms unguarded near Andrew’s thigh. He reached for it again and managed to snatch it away. In under five seconds Neil scrambled back from his chair to the couch/base again. Andrew rushed after him but halted once Neil touched the couch. In a way Neil felt a little flattered that Andrew held to the rule that he couldn’t be touched while on base.

         Andrew seemed to be getting jittery. Neil considered taking the worms might have been for the best just to confiscate the sugar from him. Andrew stopped in thought for a moment, then hopped up from his beanbag, over the “lava” and onto the carpet, and went into one of the rooms. Neil could hear the creek of a closet being opened and being rummaged through. When Andrew came back he had a Nerf gun in one hand and tossed a second one next to Neil. Neil vaguely recalled seeing them from a freshman orientation party for the swimming bros.

         “You’re going to shoot me over candy?” asked Neil.

         “We’re fighting for them,” Andrew said. He pointed to the beanbags, “Base, base” the counter, “land,” the carpet, “land. I want to say the table and desks are land but I also don’t want Kevin on my ass for breaking them so let’s agree that it’s a rickety bridge.”

         “Wait, hold on,” Neil stood up and cleared off his desk, which mostly had schoolbooks, notebooks, and wrappers he forgot to throw away, and pushed it down the wall. “This isn’t ‘base’, but I’ll use it for cover. You can use the counter – uh, the other base.”

         “Land.” Andrew corrected him, “Why do you get dibs to your desk?”

         “Because the counter is slightly taller and you need all the coverage you can manage. I mean, considering your stature it wouldn’t be difficult but…”

         Andrew cocked the toy gun. “Oh, don’t speak to me like I don’t know how to kill someone with foam. It’s on.”

         Neil picked up the plastic toy. It wasn’t heavy enough to remind him of the real guns he’s carried. It wasn’t shaped much like one either, with nine tumblers for foam bullets with rubber tips on the front. The only thing similar was the trigger, but even that wasn’t tight enough to operate in the same way.

         Neil and Andrew exchanged friendly fire for the next few hours. There wasn’t even much “fire” to be exchanged, since both were extremely patient before making any decision, and in hindsight Neil regretted allowing Andrew to have the side of the dorm with the snacks. Neil waited patiently under the desk, feeling oddly snug with the small wooden walls. He snuck out one gummy worm just to try it. He winced. This wasn’t worth the war.

         He peeked above and around his cover to look for any signs. In the last hour when Neil was considering if he could somehow flick the bullets off the walls without sticking to them, he felt a flick on his shoulder. He only truly registered it when he saw the orange and purple bullet by his foot.

         “Ack!” Neil cried out, flailing overdramatically to the floor/lava, “I’m dead. Andrew you finally did it you killed me,”

         “I only got you in the shoulder.”

         “Bleh!” Neil tensed his hand up over the couch so Andrew could see the dramatic struggle then dropped it limply to his side. He stuck out his tongue for affect.

         Neil shut his eyes and stayed still. He heard footsteps walk near him.

         “It’s a wonder you joined Exy and not the drama club,” said Andrew. Neil did not answer to keep in character. Then Neil felt a familiar brush on the corner of his lip. That made him open one eye.

         “There. You came back to life. You gonna quit it now?”

         “What happened to the cooties?”

         “I received a vaccine in the intervening time.”

         “Andrew, hate to break it to you, but I suspect a body has more bacteria than cooties.”

         Andrew ignored him and leaned in for another kiss.

         They were interrupted by the sound of the key turning in the lock. Neil hadn’t even realized hours had passed. The two of them scrambled back to the beanbags before the door opened.

         “How was the hike?” Neil asked.

         “Ffffffffffffffff-,” said Nicky, approaching the back of the couch and sinking over it like a worm, “Exertion. Early mornings. _Effort_. No more.”

         “Spoken like a true athlete, Nicky.” said Kevin. He walked into the kitchen, saw foam bullets suction-cupped to the cupboards and fridge magnet, and made the firm decision he didn’t want to know.

         “I am not retracting my statement.” Nicky said into the cushion.

         Neil retreated before they commented on the moved desks or the abandoned Nerf guns on the counter and desk.

         As Neil grabbed his clothes and got dressed in the bathroom his reality sort of settled back onto him. It always struck him as strange that the college kids surrounding him would be so interested in cartoons (“ _Daria is no mere cartoon, Neil!”_ ) and collected toys like water guns. It could be compensation. Neil had his reasons for not taking interest in childish things. He viewed his childhood  (almost everything before he burned the car) as a fractured waste of a lifetime. But mornings like this one provided something he hadn’t considered: that there’s nothing stopping him from taking pieces of that simple past “normal” people wax on about. It can’t be lost when he’s able to take it and, even better, make it into his own.

         When Neil walked out, dressed in usual attire of a Palmetto t-shirt and baggy shorts, the couch and bean bags had been rearranged to the other side of the room. A pop went past his head and to the wall, and a second one stuck to Neil’s head.

         “Headshot,” said Aaron’s voice from the couch,

         “Aaron!” said Nicky, popping out from behind the counter like a whack-a-mole, “You just shot a civilian!”

         “What a pity,” Aaron rotated the plastic tumblers to the ammo he wasn’t missing.

         Neil pulled the suction cup off his forehead. “Real mature,” he said, flicking the foam bullet at Aaron, hoping he knew nothing about he and Andrew spent half the morning prior. Andrew and Kevin were nowhere to be seen, but Neil spotted the top of Robin’s head in a corner behind a desk, almost out of sight.

         When he walked out the door Andrew was standing in the hall leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. He was dressed in his usual attire of a black sweater and black jeans. Neil could have teased him about clearly waiting for him at the door but instead slid his hands in his pockets and mimicked his lean.

         “That sure was a dumb morning,” said Andrew,

         “Yeah but you _liked_ it,” said Neil, saying it in a sing-songy way as if teasing him about a crush. Andrew must have taken notice to his tone in particular, giving Neil an up-and-down look that was either the peak of annoyed or genuine concern.

         “Neil, if you ever make Court, and you use whatever proceeds you earn on making an amusement park in your backyard as some type of mid-midlife crisis, then knowing you will have come full circle as being just the biggest waste of my time.”

         “Says the man who bought a Maserati at seventeen.” An elbow nudged at Neil’s ribs.

         Andrew handed Neil the gummy worm bag. Neil opened it and saw there was nothing inside but gathered sugar.

         “Just a big waste of time,” Andrew continued, “And it’s still early afternoon.”

         “Yep.”

         “Nothing better to do than to indulge in make-believe.”

         “I mean, we could be finishing our homework instead. Or study at the library. Or practice more.”

         There was a pause, “Race you to the rooftop,”

         Before the words even registered past Neil’s ears Andrew ran through the door to the stairwell like a shot.

         “What -?! Not fair, Andrew! Andrew!” Neil pushed himself off the wall and slammed through the door, dashing up the stairs three at a time and passing Andrew by a whole floor before reaching the top first. The moment he saw the clear sky all he thought about was how at times he felt like the fastest person alive.

**Author's Note:**

> I asked Many People if sour gummy worms was capitalized or not. It's a great concern.  
> Comments always appreciated ^_^


End file.
